It was a happy homecoming for former Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena Sunday. All three players that went to the Calgary Flames this summer: forwards Elias Lindholm and Derek Ryan and defenseman Noah Hanifin scored against the Canes in a 4-3 loss Sunday.
The game also marked the return of former Hurricanes (25-21-6) head coach Bill Peters to PNC. Canes forwards Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen and defenseman Dougie Hamilton scored against the Flames (34-14-5). Petr Mrazek stopped 28 of 32 shots in net.
“I thought our start was really good, I liked it,” head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It would have been nice to get a couple breaks earlier. But I think the difference in the game is clear to me. It’s the power play giving up a shorthanded goal. That’s not acceptable and that’s the difference in the game.”
The Canes got a golden chance to take an early lead, but Flames goalie David Rittich flashed the pad on a point-blank shot from Carolina forward Justin Williams.
Carolina did go up 1-0 about four minutes into the first period; following a defensive zone giveaway by Calgary, Teravainen finished off a tic-tac-toe play from forwards Sebastian Aho and Micheal Ferland (a former Flame). Aho’s assist tied his single-season career high at 36 and extended his point streak to five games.
The Flames tied the game on a power play a few minutes later; Lindholm tipped a point shot past Mrazek to make it 1-1.
Calgary nearly took a 2-1 lead on an early second-period power play, but a couple sharp stops from Mrazek kept things tied.
Another former Hurricane gave the Flames the lead about eight minutes into the middle frame; Ryan steamed down the wing and beat Mrazek on the wrap around to put Calgary up 2-1.
The Flames took a two-goal lead on a shorthanded goal; Ryan made a perfect pass to Flames forward Garnet Hathaway on a two-on-one rush to make it 3-1.
“There’s ups and downs in a hockey game,” Williams said. “If you want to look at one big difference in the game, I guess you can look at it as our power play went minus 1, which can’t happen. We need to execute and we need to score goals. Those are crunch times. Instead of being 2-2 and tying it up it was 3-1 then. That’s a tough hill to climb, especially against one of the better teams in the league.”
Hamilton, a former Flame, answered the former Canes back with 1:33 left in the period. He took a pass from defenseman Jaccob Slavin at the left circle and snapped it past Rittich, making it 3-2.
“It’s a really good team over there and we were right there with them,” Hamilton said. “We can play with everyone in the league when we’re playing good. We had maybe a little let down in the second and let them get ahead. Then we were chasing it which made it hard for us.”
Carolina had a shot to tie the game early in the third, but Rittich slid across to deny Williams off the rush.
The Flames finished their trifecta of former Hurricanes scorers with a blast from the point by defenseman Noah Hanifin to make it 4-2 with 6:55 left. Brind’Amour challenged for goalie interference, but the call stood, even after Canes rookie forward Andrei Svechnikov was on the receiving end of a questionable goalie interference call in the first period.
“That’s across the league,” Brind’Amour said. “You can’t tell. You can never figure that out. I didn’t think [Svechnikov]’s was, and to be honest with you I didn’t think that was at the end of the game either. But when they called the one on [Svechnikov], I’m like ‘Well surely theyr’e going to call that because it’s the exact same kind of thing. But every coach says the same things. Nobody knows what is and what isn’t [goalie interference].”
Aho brought the Canes within one with an extra-attacker goal on a blast from the slot with 55 seconds left, but Carolina could not find another tally late.
The Canes will start a five-game road trip against the Penguins in Pittsburgh Tuesday night.
